Um, guys, no, ESD discharge and potential damage is real. The amount of exposure to this damage varies from each piece of kit.
If your gear suddenly changes behavior when you touch it you could eventually damage it. In the case of my DAC the problem was most likely due to the metal control knob, or the entire DAC really, not being grounded. Since I'm using an external 12V supply the ground on the IEC the only path to ground from my DAC's case is through the signal cable.
I think a lot of you have gotten spoiled, ESD damage to ICs is a lot better now, in part due to better manufacturing of the ICs themselves.